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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102229">A Card or Two</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheankelor/pseuds/sheankelor'>sheankelor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sung Universe [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A Mother's Day Sung Tale, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:01:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,147</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102229</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheankelor/pseuds/sheankelor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the first Mothering Sunday - sometimes called Mother's Day - that Severus wasn't spending with his family. He needed to do something for his mother.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sung Universe [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/48347</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Card or Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/YenGirl/gifts">YenGirl</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This hasn't been beta'ed as I wanted this to be a complete surprise for its intended. Yen, I hope you enjoy and that you have had a great Mother's Day - both back in March and today. </p><p>Timeframe: This is during Severus' first year at Hogwarts, not too long after 'Making it to Dinner'.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">
  <em>
    <span class="u">A Card or Two</span>
  </em>
</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Mothering Sunday wasn’t held as a religious day in Severus’ house. Yes, they went to service at the local parish – his mother loved the attention that was given to her – but for the most part, they went to visit father’s mother and never mother’s. This year he wouldn’t see Grandma Snape nor Mother as he was at Hogwarts and Easter Holidays wouldn’t start until after it.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The last couple of days he’d watched the other members of Slytherin House trying to determine how they celebrated Mothering Sunday. A few were making cards, others were buying gifts – especially the upper years as they could go to Hogsmeade. <em>‘Lily is making her mum a card and some sort of gift. She won’t tell me what it is though.’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">With a sigh, Severus turned back to the neatly trimmed piece of parchment. He should make something for Mother. If he didn’t then he wouldn’t hear the end of it during the summer. <em>‘I can draw a plant or something and write a short note.’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Plan in mind, he followed through. He quirked his lips into a small smile as he made a detailed sketch of <em>Atropa belladonna</em>. He was sure his mother would recognise the deadly nightshade, but it was such a beautiful flower and it did have medicinal purposes that he thought she might not be offended. A quick standard message inside and it was ready to go.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">It was while digging through his truck he found the brush that Mama Sung gave him. <em>‘I should make her a card too. What would she like?’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He dug through his trunk, finding scraps of red and gold paper. He placed them into a folded piece of parchment. He had to plan.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">§§§§§</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">It had taken a couple of days and a quiet talk with Professor Sprout about how to magically dry flowers, but he knew what to do. Using his Chinese to English dictionary, he composed a message.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">
  <em>Happy Mothering Sunday! I don’t know if you celebrate this holiday, but here it is a day to see and treat your mother. I wish I could be there today but I can’t. So, I am sending this to you. I hope you like it. </em>
</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Using the brush set, he did his best to draw a picture like the artwork at the Sung house. Mountains in the background with trees in the front. They were messy – he wasn’t an artist – but they were better than he’d ever done before. He then wrote his message on the inside. <em>‘I wish I had a seal – the red would look nice with this.’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Setting that wish aside, he used the red and gold paper bits to decorate the corners of the inside and outside of the card. He glued the dried violets to the front. He then carefully slid it into an envelope and addressed it to Mama Sung.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">§§§§§</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Lanfen Sung accepted the envelope from the owl, absentmindedly tossing it a treat. She then tucked the missive into her hanfu and returned to her patient.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">It was more than an hour later before she was able to look at it. Sitting outside in a peaceful garden, she read the address.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">‘<em>Severus!?’</em> She quickly broke the seal, worry eating at her as she wondered if something bad had happened. Maybe all wasn’t well since he returned to school from the New Year. Yes, that was over a month ago, but something might have happened and the boy just worked up the courage to tell her. <em>‘I wish he could be here. It’s so hard to mother him that far away. If he was here he could go to school with Lui and they could look after each other.’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Pushing her thoughts off that well-worn track, she extracted the folded parchment from the envelope. A few dried petals and leaves floated out and landed on her hanfu. She refrained from brushing them off and flipped over the folded parchment.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Lanfen’s breath caught as she stared at the card. The picture wasn’t high art, but it didn’t matter. She knew the shaky brushwork that inscribed the sides of it, she knew who the artist had to be, and any mother would be proud of her child’s artwork. Her fingertips brushed over the mountain peaks, glided down the attempted waterfalls, and tapped the tree branches before brushing under the dried, crumbling violets. <em>‘Maybe art lessons this summer.’</em> Finally, she opened the card, begin careful of the flowers, and felt a smile curl her lips even as tears gathered in her eyes.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">‘<em>Oh, Severus, I wish you were here too. I don’t know what this Mothering Sunday is, but thank you.’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Her fingertips rested on his name, wishing he was there, wishing to see him. It had been hard when she only saw him once a year in the summer, but then he came to the Reunion Dinner this year. She should have scolded both him and Lui more, should have sent Severus immediately back to his school, but she couldn’t. Severus had belonged there and sending him back to Hogwarts had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">She was a healer and she could see the signs of mistreatment on her son even if he tried to hide them well. <em>‘But I have no right to him, no matter that he is my son. He is Mrs Snape’s son first and she has the right to send him where she wills.’</em> She shook her head, dislodging those thoughts. She had seen him healed to the best of her abilities before she let him return, just as she had made sure he had his own wand. She did what she could do.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Carefully slipping the card back into its envelope, Lanfen made sure the petals and leaves were put back inside as well. <em>‘I’ll show it to Mingyu and we can work out a way to put it back together again.’</em></p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Tucking it away, she headed back into the ward to help her patients.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">§§§§§</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Severus kept his face blank when the great horned owl landed delivered him a letter. He learnt the first time not to smile when not only did Potter and Black notice and give him a hard time, but the members of his own House tried to find out what he’d received. If he didn’t smile and barely gave the post any attention, they ignored him.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Later, hiding behind his bed curtains, he opened the small tube and removed the rice paper inside. Unrolling it, his breath caught as a beautiful image of the Sung’s house appeared with the gardens surrounding it. He recognised Mama Sung’s seal at the bottom. Under the picture was written ‘Thank you, my son.’</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He let it roll back up and clutched it carefully to his chest as tears trailed down his face. Mama liked it.</p>
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